"How the hell did they do that?" Benkó gaped.
"I have no idea. The father tried to explain it once, but I got bored when he talked about the attractive and repulsive energies of the earth for fifteen minutes." Rahul shrugged.
"So, just to make sure I understand correctly, that's the school over there?" Citar pointed to the floating buildings.
"Exactly, that's the school over there." Rahul folded his arms in front of him and grimaced.
"Is something wrong?" Razvan put his hand on the local boy's shoulder.
"I don't like heights." He glanced up at the Floating Air Barracks, then sighed. "But that's where we can get information the easiest. If the seer sent us here, we have no choice but to go up." He closed his eyes.
"Don't worry Rahul, you can easily go up to Master Mo's too." Citar grinned.
"Yeah, if the boss takes him." Suk whispered and covered his mouth before laughing.
"Okay guys, let's find an inn and then we'll register for the entrance exam tomorrow." Rahul put his hands on his hips and smiled. And when the team agreed to the idea, they took to the streets of Floating Barracks to find themselves a place to stay.
Well, that was easier said than done. Considering that the entrance exam for Floating Air Barracks was at the end of that week, the team was sent away from every inn with the news that the house was full due to the applicants. They were already well into the evening and Rahul was already thinking that they might have to go out of town to the nearest guard post to find a place to stay when they found a certain inn.
"Sorry, but I only have one room left for four people." The lady said sadly. "No one wanted to sleep with three strangers, but there are a lot of you too, young gentlemen." The woman shook her head.
"That room..." Razvan began and stepped next to Rahul. "Do you think we could all fit in it?" He asked, and the girl held her chin and thought about it.
"Well, if it doesn't bother you that there are only four beds in it, I think so." The innkeeper said timidly, and the members of the team looked at each other.
"It doesn't bother me, I still sleep every night with the idiots' elbow in my kidney." Benkó rolled his eyes.
"Do you want me to hit you? Whose hand is in my face every morning, huh?!" Achilleus countered.
"Boys, that's enough." Teveli scolded them. "I don't think anything bad will come of it." He smiled, and the others started nodding, and Rahul sighed and turned back to the woman behind the counter with a faint smile.
"We would like to take that room." He said and pulled out a small bag of coins from under his coat.
"Okay, gentlemen. Names please." The woman smiled, and Rahul leaned forward.
"Rahul Míngrizimen." As the words left the boy's mouth, the lady's eyes widened and after a moment she continued with a wide but nervous smile.
"Their names taken before God please." She corrected herself.
"Rahul, Razvan, Wandi, Citar, Suk, Teveli, Achilleus, Benkó." Rahul said, and the woman nodded and wrote down the names, then took the last key from the wall.
"Room 18M will be yours at the very end of the corridor. Make yourself comfortable." The lady handed over the key.
"Thank you very much." Rahul nodded as he took the key, then waved to the others and started down the corridor.
yOkay, what the shit was that there earlier?" Suk clapped his hands on his hips, when all eight of them were in the room and the door closed behind them.
"Nothing, it's just better if they don't know who you are." Rahul shrugged. "I just said that we came from my village. The last name of people from the border is usually the name of their village." He waved.
"But..." Achilleus also started, but Razvan raised his hand.
"Enough boys, we've had a long day and we'll have a long day tomorrow too, we'd better go to bed." The leader of the Athamanas remarked, grumbling, but the group finally began to disperse around the four beds in the small room.
Wandi immediately grabbed Citar's arm and pulled him to the bed closest to the window, which made the Bolacsuk boy laugh and slap his friend in the side before he fell on the bed, not paying attention to what was going on around him and not moving as Wandi lay down next to him.
Suk and Teveli occupied the other bed next to the window, one of them lying head towards the foot of the bed and the other lying down properly. Rahul thought about asking why they were doing this, but when Suk started to snore softly, he just smiled and shook his head. The Zovárd boy really was a strange guy, and Teveli was already asleep the moment he laid his head down, there was no point in asking a question like that.
Achilleus and Benkó took the bed on the right side of the door and fell asleep with their backs to each other, but shortly after that by the time Rahul stood next to the free bed, they had already turned around and one had his leg around the other's waist and the other had his hand in the first one's face. Rahul couldn't bear this sight without giggling, and when Razvan also looked at the pair, he smiled too.
"They really can't sleep peacefully." Rahul remarked softly.
"They were never known for that. Once we slept in a cave with me between them. In the middle of my rest, I woke up with two legs in my stomach. I was blue and green for a week." Razvan sighed as he recalled the incident.
"Then you're lucky, boss, I sleep like a rock. Good night." Rahul yawned as he lay down and turned towards the door and fell asleep in a matter of seconds. Razvan lay down next to him on the bed and closed his eyes, but before he could fall asleep he felt the person next to him move closer to him. When he opened his eyes, he found himself facing Rahul's sleeping face. At this, he also turned to the side and hugged the boy.
"You sleep like a rock, right. You roll around like Svihák when you're exhausted." The boy muttered under his breath, then pressed a quick kiss to the sleeping boy's forehead. "Good night Rahul." He whispered before letting sleep take him too.
The next morning, the group was awakened by a knock, which was enough to make Rahul literally fall out of bed when he realized that the Tapló boss was hugging him. So he opened the door with a poppy red face, and on the other side stood the innkeeper with a large basket filled with food and drink in his hand, holding the basket towards Rahul.
"A gift from the house. Bon appetit, young gentlemen." She announced when Rahul took the basket and before he could even say thank you, the girl had disappeared.
"Here's breakfast, then let's go register." Rahul turned back to the group and placed the basket on the nearest bed.
After the team finished their meal, they took up the roads of Floating Barracks again and, following the crowd of young people, they soon found the space where the registration was taking place. Led by Rahul, they stood in one of the lines and the wait began.
"Should we introduce ourselves with the village name here too, if they ask for our name?" The whispered question came from Citar.
"Tell the truth here. The pen they use is soaked in kí, it scans your handwriting, it will know if you are lying and it will result in exclusion." Rahul shook his head when he heard the voice of the registration officer and immediately turned around. "It's now or never." He muttered as he walked up to the counter.